The Fourth Tower of Inverness
Encyclopedia
The Fourth Tower of Inverness is a 1972 radio drama
, produced by the ZBS Foundation
. It is the first of the Jack Flanders
adventure series, and combines elements of Americana
and Old-time radio
with metaphysical concepts such as past life regression
, Sufi wisdom
, Tibetan Buddhism
and shamanistic
communication with the natural world.
The adventure takes place in an estate called Inverness, and the action focuses upon a mysterious "Fourth Tower" from which previous wanderers have not returned. The program was originally broadcast in 7-minute long episodes and runs a total of seven and half hours.
. The initial story concept was created while he was staying at a farmhouse outside of Montreal
, Canada
. The farm was called Inverness, and was named and designed after a house the original owner had owned in Inverness
, Scotland
. It had been abandoned for ten years, but was being looked after by an old caretaker. The initial characters were written for other guests at the farmhouse, who were friends and acquaintances of Meatball Fulton
, although the series was not produced at this time.
In June 1970, Meatball Fulton
moved to Fort Edward
, New York
to help found ZBS
Media, with a focus on producing commercials for various musical acts such as Billy Joel
, Little Feat
, Jefferson Airplane
and Captain Beefheart
. After about a year and a half of this, he became bored with writing commercials, and had an uncomfortable experience producing an album for Abbie Hoffman
. Remembering the radio play he had written back in Montreal, he decided to produce his own script. The story was fleshed out, actors were cast, and the episodes were produced periodically whenever new scripts were written. The amateur nature of the production can still be heard, with occasional breaking of character by the cast, and laughing when lines are flubbed. (Bloopers).
Eventually a backer was found, Augie Blume of Grunt Records
, who help shape the series down to 7-minute daily episodes, and half-hour weekend episodes. The Fourth Tower of Inverness played on 350 college stations, where it was a hit. The series has since been broadcast in several different formats, such as on NPR Playhouse
and The Watt from Pedro Show. It is also available for purchase in almost every available audio format, such as cassette, CD and MP3.
, a hitchhiker and drifter, is invited to the estate of his aunt, Lady Sara Jowls. As Jack approaches the estate, he sees an outline of the mansion silhouetted against the night sky, with four distinct towers reaching up to the sky, though his aunt and everyone else who lives there insists there are only three.
Jack slowly becomes familiar with the strange inhabitants of Inverness, including the mansion's caretaker, Old Far-seeing Art, who can listen to the aum
sound emanating from the center of the Universe, and tends to the estate's hedge maze, a place that only he can enter without going insane. Others include Dr. Mazoola, an alchemist of the first order
, Jives the Butler, who is an old quick-change artist
with a dry sense of humor, the Madonna Vampyra, an energy vampire who lives in the mansion's hollow walls, Wham Bam Shazam, a young man with a penchant for the 1950s who is learning to fly from Chief Wampum, and Little Frieda, a Venusian
who is a "million and a half" years old, but looks like a small girl with no pupils in her eyes, large pigtails, and a penchant for smoking huge Havana cigars
.
The group teach Jack what he needs to know in order to successfully enter, and more importantly, return from, the Fourth Tower, ranging from an explanation of the Tibeten Wheel of Life
to a past-life regression and a lesson on how to draw energy from trees.
Lady Jowls' husband, Lord Henry Jowls, vanished into the mysterious Fourth Tower without a trace some years ago. Lady Jowls is disturbed by the recent happenings at the mansion, in particular an old jukebox somewhere in one of the mansion's three tall towers, that plays the song "Angel Baby
" whenever an accident is about to occur. Accidents have been on the rise in Inverness recently, and range from simple misunderstandings involving an aroused kundalini
to a fire-breathing dragon
.
Jack
realizes that the mysterious jukebox must be playing in the invisible Fourth Tower, and is determined to find its source. It is said that in the past, eight people have seen and entered the fourth tower of Inverness, and none have returned alive. Jack Flanders
is the ninth.
Special thanks to Robert Durand, The Jefferson Airplane
, John Romkey, Michael Roach, Augie Blume, Max & Miles and all the gang at ZBS
.
Dedicated to Rango, his vision made all this possible.
"The Fourth Tower of Inverness has been recorded on adhesive tape"
"High atop a mountain, above the pines and mist that surrounds the bay of Inverness, there stands an incredible mansion. Its three towers appear to pierce the sky, its windows are like a thousand eyes turned inward, and its doors, hinged on time, open into endless space. The Fourth Tower of Inverness!"
encounters several jukebox
es, each with a different theme.
, which featured an organ playing in the basement whenever an accident would occur. The name of the lead character, Jack Flanders
, was also in homage to the hero on I Love a Mystery, Jack Packard.
The past life regression sequence is taken from a real life experience, and shows the actual past life relationships between series author Meatball Fulton and actress Laura Esterman, who plays the Madonna Vampyra. The technique of regression was developed by William Swygard, adapted from the pamphlet Multi-Level Awareness and was available as a booklet by mail.
series, and several of the characters introduced continue to appear in later adventures. Jack briefly returns to the mansion of Inverness in Moon Over Morocco (1973)
, and the quest for the Lotus Jukebox continues in The Ah-Ha Phenomenon (1977)
. A direct sequel was produced in 2000, Return to Inverness
, which re-united most of the original cast.
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
, produced by the ZBS Foundation
ZBS Foundation
ZBS Foundation, a small non-profit audio production company, was founded by Thomas Lopez in 1970 with a grant from Robert E. Durand as a working commune based on a donated farm in Upstate New York...
. It is the first of the Jack Flanders
Jack Flanders
Jack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
adventure series, and combines elements of Americana
Americana
Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...
and Old-time radio
Old-time radio
Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
with metaphysical concepts such as past life regression
Past life regression
Past life regression is a technique that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories of past lives or incarnations, though others regard them as fantasies or delusions. Past life regression is typically undertaken either in pursuit of a spiritual experience, or in a...
, Sufi wisdom
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
, Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
and shamanistic
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
communication with the natural world.
The adventure takes place in an estate called Inverness, and the action focuses upon a mysterious "Fourth Tower" from which previous wanderers have not returned. The program was originally broadcast in 7-minute long episodes and runs a total of seven and half hours.
History
The Fourth Tower of Inverness was written and directed by Meatball FultonThomas Lopez
Thomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton, is one of the founders and president of the ZBS Foundation. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. Some of these aired in 1984-85 as part of ZBS' stereo radio series The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz.His output includes the entire Jack...
. The initial story concept was created while he was staying at a farmhouse outside of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The farm was called Inverness, and was named and designed after a house the original owner had owned in Inverness
Inverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It had been abandoned for ten years, but was being looked after by an old caretaker. The initial characters were written for other guests at the farmhouse, who were friends and acquaintances of Meatball Fulton
Thomas Lopez
Thomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton, is one of the founders and president of the ZBS Foundation. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. Some of these aired in 1984-85 as part of ZBS' stereo radio series The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz.His output includes the entire Jack...
, although the series was not produced at this time.
In June 1970, Meatball Fulton
Thomas Lopez
Thomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton, is one of the founders and president of the ZBS Foundation. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. Some of these aired in 1984-85 as part of ZBS' stereo radio series The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz.His output includes the entire Jack...
moved to Fort Edward
Fort Edward (town), New York
Fort Edward is a town in and the county seat of Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town population was 5,892 at the 2000 census....
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to help found ZBS
ZBS
ZBS stands for* ZBS Foundation* Zugbeeinflussungssystem S-Bahn Berlin...
Media, with a focus on producing commercials for various musical acts such as Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
, Little Feat
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles....
, Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
and Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
. After about a year and a half of this, he became bored with writing commercials, and had an uncomfortable experience producing an album for Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
. Remembering the radio play he had written back in Montreal, he decided to produce his own script. The story was fleshed out, actors were cast, and the episodes were produced periodically whenever new scripts were written. The amateur nature of the production can still be heard, with occasional breaking of character by the cast, and laughing when lines are flubbed. (Bloopers).
Eventually a backer was found, Augie Blume of Grunt Records
Grunt Records
Grunt Records is a vanity label founded in 1971 by Jefferson Airplane and distributed by RCA Records. Initially created to sign local Bay Area acts, the label later was used only for Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna releases. The label ended use in 1987 after Grace Slick left...
, who help shape the series down to 7-minute daily episodes, and half-hour weekend episodes. The Fourth Tower of Inverness played on 350 college stations, where it was a hit. The series has since been broadcast in several different formats, such as on NPR Playhouse
NPR Playhouse
NPR Playhouse was a series of radio dramas from National Public Radio. The series was a successor to the NPR series Earplay and was discontinued in September 2002....
and The Watt from Pedro Show. It is also available for purchase in almost every available audio format, such as cassette, CD and MP3.
Story
Jack FlandersJack Flanders
Jack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
, a hitchhiker and drifter, is invited to the estate of his aunt, Lady Sara Jowls. As Jack approaches the estate, he sees an outline of the mansion silhouetted against the night sky, with four distinct towers reaching up to the sky, though his aunt and everyone else who lives there insists there are only three.
Jack slowly becomes familiar with the strange inhabitants of Inverness, including the mansion's caretaker, Old Far-seeing Art, who can listen to the aum
Aum
Om or Aum Om or Aum Om or Aum (also , written in Devanāgari as and as , in Sanskrit known as (lit. "to sound out loudly"), ', or ' (also as ') (lit. "Auṃ form/syllable"), is a sacred/mystical syllable in the Dharmic or Indian religions, i.e...
sound emanating from the center of the Universe, and tends to the estate's hedge maze, a place that only he can enter without going insane. Others include Dr. Mazoola, an alchemist of the first order
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
, Jives the Butler, who is an old quick-change artist
Quick-change
Quick-change is a performance style in which a performer or magician changes quickly within seconds from one costume into another costume in front of the audience.-Modern Quick-Change Artists:...
with a dry sense of humor, the Madonna Vampyra, an energy vampire who lives in the mansion's hollow walls, Wham Bam Shazam, a young man with a penchant for the 1950s who is learning to fly from Chief Wampum, and Little Frieda, a Venusian
Venusians
In science fiction and ufology, a Venusian is a native inhabitant of the planet Venus.-Etymology:The word "Venusian" is simply a combination of the name of the planet Venus and the suffix -ian, formed on the analogy of "Martian" . It is usually pronounced or...
who is a "million and a half" years old, but looks like a small girl with no pupils in her eyes, large pigtails, and a penchant for smoking huge Havana cigars
Habanos SA
Habanos S.A. is the arm of the Cuban state tobacco company, Cubatabaco, that controls the promotion, distribution, and export of Cuban cigars and other tobacco products worldwide. The word habanos means literally from Havana, and is the word used in the Spanish-speaking world for Havana cigars...
.
The group teach Jack what he needs to know in order to successfully enter, and more importantly, return from, the Fourth Tower, ranging from an explanation of the Tibeten Wheel of Life
Bhavacakra
The bhavacakra is a symbolic representation of samsara found on the outside walls of Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Indo-Tibet region...
to a past-life regression and a lesson on how to draw energy from trees.
Lady Jowls' husband, Lord Henry Jowls, vanished into the mysterious Fourth Tower without a trace some years ago. Lady Jowls is disturbed by the recent happenings at the mansion, in particular an old jukebox somewhere in one of the mansion's three tall towers, that plays the song "Angel Baby
Angel Baby (song)
"Angel Baby" was a 1960 single by Rosie & The Originals. The song was recorded independently on a two-track machine when lead singer Rosie Hamlin was only 15 years old. Initially unable to find a label willing to distribute the song because of its unpolished sound, the group convinced a San Diego...
" whenever an accident is about to occur. Accidents have been on the rise in Inverness recently, and range from simple misunderstandings involving an aroused kundalini
Kundalini
Kundalini literally means coiled. In yoga, a "corporeal energy" - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, lies coiled at the base of the spine. It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent...
to a fire-breathing dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
.
Jack
Jack Flanders
Jack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
realizes that the mysterious jukebox must be playing in the invisible Fourth Tower, and is determined to find its source. It is said that in the past, eight people have seen and entered the fourth tower of Inverness, and none have returned alive. Jack Flanders
Jack Flanders
Jack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
is the ninth.
Credits
- Jack FlandersJack FlandersJack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
- Robert LorickRobert LorickRobert Lorick is an actor and lyricist, best known as a Broadway lyricist and for his work portraying Jack Flanders, a character in an ongoing series of ZBS Foundation audio adventures. In 1972, he made his debut as a lyricist with the Off-Broadway musical Hark! at the Mercer-O'Casey Theatre... - Little Frieda - P.J. Orte (Billed as Pat Anderson)
- Narrator & Dr. Mazoolah - Dave Herman
- The Madonna Vampyra - Laura EstermanLaura EstermanLaura Esterman is an American actress known for portraying Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe in contemporary radio dramas and for her Drama Desk Award and Obie Award winning performance in the 1992 original stage production of Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room.-Life and career:Esterman was born in New York...
- Chief Wampum & Old Far-Seeing Art - Meatball FultonThomas LopezThomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton, is one of the founders and president of the ZBS Foundation. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. Some of these aired in 1984-85 as part of ZBS' stereo radio series The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz.His output includes the entire Jack...
- Lord Henry Jowls - Murray HeadMurray HeadMurray Seafield Saint-George Head is a British actor and singer, most recognised for his international hit songs "Superstar" and "One Night in Bangkok" and his album Say It Ain't So...
- Meanie Eenie & Lady Jowls - Valerie Mamches
- Intro-Outro themes - Paul Combs
- Outro-Announcer - Mark StoneMark StoneMark Stone may refer to:* Mark Stone , baritone* Mark Stone , bass guitarist for "Mammoth", 1972–1974* Mark Stone , fictional character* Mark Kennedy , also known as Mark Stone...
- Voice in Whirlitzer - Ram DassRam DassRam Dass is an American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem...
- Engineering - Bobby Bielecki (Billed as Virgil Snakeskin)
- Wrtten & Directed - Meatball FultonThomas LopezThomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton, is one of the founders and president of the ZBS Foundation. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. Some of these aired in 1984-85 as part of ZBS' stereo radio series The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz.His output includes the entire Jack...
Special thanks to Robert Durand, The Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
, John Romkey, Michael Roach, Augie Blume, Max & Miles and all the gang at ZBS
ZBS
ZBS stands for* ZBS Foundation* Zugbeeinflussungssystem S-Bahn Berlin...
.
Dedicated to Rango, his vision made all this possible.
"The Fourth Tower of Inverness has been recorded on adhesive tape"
Intro
Each episode of the Fourth Tower of Inverness begins:"High atop a mountain, above the pines and mist that surrounds the bay of Inverness, there stands an incredible mansion. Its three towers appear to pierce the sky, its windows are like a thousand eyes turned inward, and its doors, hinged on time, open into endless space. The Fourth Tower of Inverness!"
Bloopers
There are a number of places where the actors slip up or break into the giggles which were left in the production. These include:- CD 1-04 - The Price Is Your Heart!
PJ Orte stumbles but covers with a laughed ad-libAd libitumAd libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure"; it is often shortened to "ad lib" or "ad-lib"...
.
- CD 2-02 - I Saw A Unicorn Once
Dave Herman stumbles over the word Whirlitzer.
- CD 3-02 - The Tibetan Wheel of Life
Robert Lorick trips up Valerie by ad-libbingAd libitumAd libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure"; it is often shortened to "ad lib" or "ad-lib"...
. Robert Lorick giggles.
- CD 5-01 - Hail, Fair Birds
Robert Lorick laughs on the line "Hail, Fair Birds". Cast have fits of the giggles.
- CD 5-05 - The Dragon, It's Coming! PJ Orte laughs. Robert stumbles and he and Valerie laugh.
- CD 6-04 - Hey, Jazzbo Announcer stumbles and comments.
- CD 6-06 - Hit The Road, Jack Valerie stumbles and giggles with Robert. Valerie & Robert have the giggles again.
Jukeboxes
During his adventures Jack FlandersJack Flanders
Jack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
encounters several jukebox
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...
es, each with a different theme.
- Whirlitzer of Wisdom - This is the first jukebox discovered, and the only one outside of the Fourth Tower. For the price of a dimeDime (United States coin)The dime is a coin 10 cents, one tenth of a United States dollar, labeled formally as "one dime". The denomination was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. The dime is the smallest in diameter and is the thinnest of all U.S...
, it plays various wisdoms by people such as Ram DassRam DassRam Dass is an American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem...
and Don Van VlietCaptain BeefheartDon Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
(billed as the Venerable Van Vliet). Its name is based on the classic WurlitzerWurlitzerThe Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
jukebox.
- Great Green Jade Jukebox - This is the second jukebox discovered, inside the Fourth Tower. It is able to bring a city to life, replaying encounters in order. In order to reach the next step, track 2 must be played, and so on.
- Bodhisattva Jukebox - This is the final jukebox discovered inside the Fourth Tower. It features the song "Kirtan" by Bhagavan Das, and listening to it brings understanding. The characters' heads and arms expand, in a way similar to a story of the bodhisattvaBodhisattvaIn Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...
canon.
- Lotus Jukebox - Source of the haunting music ("Angel BabyAngel Baby (song)"Angel Baby" was a 1960 single by Rosie & The Originals. The song was recorded independently on a two-track machine when lead singer Rosie Hamlin was only 15 years old. Initially unable to find a label willing to distribute the song because of its unpolished sound, the group convinced a San Diego...
"). Although this is what he is searching for in The Fourth Tower of Inverness, Jack FlandersJack FlandersJack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
does not encounter it until The Ah-Ha PhenomenonThe Ah-Ha PhenomenonThe Ah-Ha Phenomenon is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation . Released in 1977 this is the third of the Jack Flanders adventure series, and combines elements of Americana and Old-time radio with metaphysical concepts such as Sufi wisdom and Tibetan Buddhism.-Plot:Jack Flanders is...
.
Music
In the series there are many musical interludes:- "B Movie" - Elvis Costello (Double-check. This song was written in 1979 and released in 1980.)
- "Devil or Angel" - The Clovers
- "Most of All" - The Moonglows
- "Oh, What a Nite" - The Dells
- "Where Do You Come From" - Elvis Presley
- "The Golden Wedding" - Woody Herman and His Orchestra
- "There Goes My Baby" - The Drifters
- "Its All in the Game" - Tommy Edwards
- "Black Forrest" - Jimmy Forrest
- "Yellow Brick Road" - Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
- "Duke of Earl" - Gene Chandler
- "Green Eyes" - Helen O’Connel/Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra/Bob Everly
- "Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On" - Jerry Lee Lewis
- "Jazzbo Stomp" - Memphis Jug Band
- "Hit The Road Jack" - Ray Charles
Influences
The idea of a jukebox that plays whenever an accident was about to occur was based on and paying homage to an episode of the radio show I Love a MysteryI Love a Mystery
I Love a Mystery was a radio drama series about three friends who ran a detective agency and traveled the world in search of adventure. Distinguished by the high octane scripting of Carlton E...
, which featured an organ playing in the basement whenever an accident would occur. The name of the lead character, Jack Flanders
Jack Flanders
Jack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
, was also in homage to the hero on I Love a Mystery, Jack Packard.
The past life regression sequence is taken from a real life experience, and shows the actual past life relationships between series author Meatball Fulton and actress Laura Esterman, who plays the Madonna Vampyra. The technique of regression was developed by William Swygard, adapted from the pamphlet Multi-Level Awareness and was available as a booklet by mail.
Sequel
The Fourth Tower of Inverness is the beginning of the Jack FlandersJack Flanders
Jack Flanders is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick....
series, and several of the characters introduced continue to appear in later adventures. Jack briefly returns to the mansion of Inverness in Moon Over Morocco (1973)
Moon Over Morocco
Moon Over Morocco is a 1974 radio drama, the second in ZBS's Jack Flanders series. Originally broadcast as fifty twelve-minute episodes, the serial was written and directed by Meatball Fulton.-Synopsis:...
, and the quest for the Lotus Jukebox continues in The Ah-Ha Phenomenon (1977)
The Ah-Ha Phenomenon
The Ah-Ha Phenomenon is a radio drama, produced by the ZBS Foundation . Released in 1977 this is the third of the Jack Flanders adventure series, and combines elements of Americana and Old-time radio with metaphysical concepts such as Sufi wisdom and Tibetan Buddhism.-Plot:Jack Flanders is...
. A direct sequel was produced in 2000, Return to Inverness
Return to Inverness
Return to Inverness is a 2000 radio drama, the twelfth in ZBS's Jack Flanders series. The serial was written and directed by Meatball Fulton, as a sequel to The Fourth Tower of Inverness, the first in the series.-Plot:...
, which re-united most of the original cast.