Clutch Cargo Volume 12 (plus Bonus Episode of 'Space Angel')

A surprise hit of late '50's children's television, the serialized adventure cartoon Clutch Cargo introduced audiences to the patented Syncro-Vox animation system. To keep production costs low, voice actors were filmed as they delivered their dialog, and their moving lips were superimposed over still drawings of the characters' faces. Richard Cotting was the voice of Clutch, while Margaret Kerry (the model for Tinker Bell in Peter Pan) played his pals Spinner and Paddlefoot. Hal Smith, best remembered as Otis on The Andy Griffith Show, provided most of the other voices.

Series creator and head writer, Clark Haas, was a test pilot before he was hired by legendary cartoonist Roy Crane to write and draw the Sunday edition of his popular newspaper adventure strip, Buz Sawyer. Haas brought his love of planes to Clutch Cargo, as evidenced by the care he lavished on the drawings of them used on the program. Acclaimed jazz flutist Paul Horn can be heard perfecting his chops on the show's minimalist flute & bongo soundtrack.

THE TERRIBLE TIGER: A vacation in India goes awry when Clutch and Spinner are attacked by a vicious Bengal tiger.

THE CIRCUS: Spinner is blamed for a series of accidents that befall the circus.

BUSH PILOTS: Clutch searches for a bush pilot who went down in the Canadian wilderness.

CHEDDAR CHEATERS: The world's most famous cheese-maker is plagued by cow thieves.

BONUS: Space Angel "Crystal's Anti-Boy Friend": Space Angel was the second series produced by Cambria Productions, the short-lived animation studio who made Clutch Cargo. Like Clutch, the series used the cost-cutting Syncro-Vox technique. Ned LeFevre, an old-time radio veteran who worked with Bob Hope and Red Skelton, was the voice of Scott McCloud, captain of the spaceship Starduster in the far-flung future. Along with engineer Taurus and communications expert Crystal Mace (played by Cambria regulars Hal Smith and Margaret Kerry) Scott, also known as "the Space Angel", kept Earth safe from intergalactic threats. In "Crystal's Anti-Boy Friend", the Starduster crew discovers a planet eerily similar to Earth in an anti-matter universe - where Crystal just happens to fall in love!