Judd Holdren traveled to the Moon and Mars
Buzz Aldrin, on the 40th anniversary of his walk on the Moon, is advocating the colonization of Mars. An intriguing thought for many reasons, one being that Mars has vast quantities of material that could be converted to energy, and Congress has yet to put the planet on their “no-drill” list.
We wonder what Judd Holdren, as we observe the 57th anniversary of his first trip to the Moon, would think of Aldrin’s plan.
Holdren, of course, is the only Montgomery County native who traveled to both Mars and the Moon.
He also went to “The Unknown Planet,” a place we should consider colonizing as it already has roads and utility poles.
Judd Holdren was born on the family farm near Villisca in 1915. He went to school in Nodaway and enlisted in the Coast Guard at the beginning of World War II.
Stationed in California, possessed of striking good looks and a commanding voice, Holdren set out to become an actor. He got a part in “All The King’s Men” in 1949, followed by a role in “Francis,” a movie about a talking mule.
Holdren wanted to be a leading man and seemed on his way when he co-starred in “Lady in the Iron Mask,” but then along came outer space.
Republic Studios decided to take the TV “Captain Video” to the silver screen and settled on Holdren to star. This might have been good for his career had Republic made a full-length movie, but science-fiction wasn’t considered worthy and he found himself in the first of a string of serials.
The movie serial was a 20-minute prelude to the feature, running in 15 to 20 segments, designed to keep kids coming back to see what happens. The sci-fi serials were low-budget to the extreme.
In “Commando Cody, Sky Marshal of the Universe,” Holdren flies a space ship obviously cardboard to a place obviously a studio lot. He was good, though; good enough to carry even pathetically scripted films like “Zombies of the Universe,” “The Unknown Planet,” and “Rocketman.” In “Stratosphere” he battles Martians, one of which was played by Leonard Nimoy. Holdren made Commando Cody so popular Republic made it a TV series.
But Holdren didn’t want low-budget sci-fi; he wanted the kind of role that went to Flynn and Cooper and Bogart. He thought he deserved it, but he’d been type-cast as sci-fi at a time when Hollywood space movies were strictly for kids.
Nimoy stuck around; Holdren did not.
He went into insurance but stayed in Hollywood, still hoping for a starring role in a real movie. That role didn’t come, and in 1974 Holdren put a gun to his head.
The former Montgomery County farm boy may not have realized it, but he’d been part of a movement that would elevate the science fiction film. Cheap serials he starred in led to 1960s movies such as “A Space Odyssey” and a string of “Planet of the Ape” films, and of course Star Trek and E.T. were soon to follow.
Roy Marshall is a local historian. E-mail him at news@redoakexpress.com.